TITLE

    Oberon-A

VERSION

    Release 1.4

AUTHOR

    Frank Copeland -- fjc@wossname.apana.org.au

DESCRIPTION

    Oberon-A is a freely-distributable Oberon-2 compiler. Oberon-2 is a
    modern object-oriented language designed by Niklaus Wirth, the creator
    of Pascal and Modula-2, and Hanspeter Mvssenbvck. Oberon-A is an
    implementation of the language for the Amiga computer, ported from a
    compiler written by Niklaus Wirth.

    The archive contains the compiler, an error lister, a pre-link
    utility, a linker (BLink), a programmer's environment and other
    utilities. A complete interface to the Amiga operating system
    (Release 3.1) and a collection of library modules in source code form
    is provided. Documentation is in AmigaGuide and plain ASCII formats.
    The full source code for the compiler and utilities is available in a
    seperate archive.

    Release 1.4 is a preliminary release with a limited module library
    and requires testing.

FEATURES

    - The compiler directly generates MC68000 machine code in standard
      AmigaDOS format object files.
    - Both ALink and BLink can be used to link object modules and support
      for other linkers will be progressively added.
    - A garbage collector for memory (with some limitations) is built in to
      the run-time support code.
    - Language extensions include:
      - Escaped characters in strings (big deal :-)).
      - Support for BCPL and C pointers.
      - Inline calls to Amiga system libraries.
      - Vararg parameters to pass tag lists to Amiga library calls.
    - The compiler is currently CLI-only, but a programmer's environment
      utility provides Workbench access.
    - Interactive and batch compilation is supported.

NEW FEATURES

    - Amiga interfaces upgraded to Release 3.1.
    - An error listing utility.
    - A module definition utility.
    - Compiler options to generate stack checks and NIL pointer checks.
    - Simple foreign code interface (to be improved).

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    Oberon-A requires 1MB of memory and a hard disk is strongly recommended.
    A text editor is required and must be obtained seperately.

    Oberon-A now officially requires AmigaOS 2.04 or greater. Most of the
    package will still run under AmigaOS 1.3, but this will not last.

HOST NAME

    Oberon-A has been uploaded to AmiNet.  It is available from
    ftp.wustl.edu, archie.au and other AmiNet sites.

DIRECTORY

    ftp.wustl.edu:/pub/aminet/dev/obero
    archie.au:/pub/micros/amiga/aminet/dev/obero

FILE NAMES

    Oberon-A_1.x_bin.lha -- Binaries and documentation.
    Oberon-A_1.x_lib.lha -- Library source and examples.
    Oberon-A_1.x_src.lha -- Source for compiler and utilities.

    x is the update number, currently 4. The bin and lib archives are
    required, the src archive is optional.

PRICE

    Kind words to the author :-)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    Freeware, distributed under the GNU General Public License and the GNU
    Library General Public License.